Recently, the Guardian ran a post addressing the question of why eliminating corruption is crucial for sustainability. A first glance the two topics might seem unrelated—the one about criminal behavior and the other about something like environmental responsibility.
Where exactly then, do the two ideas come together?
Merriam-Webster defines corruption as, “impairment of integrity, virtue, or moral principle,” and also as “inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (as bribery).”
A sustainable business, on the other hand, is one whose practices must be in alignment with the company’s core values, which, in turn, must be aligned with those of the larger system and the greater good, both in the immediate present, and with an eye towards future generations. Thus there is an implicit integrity involved.
Corruption short-circuits that alignment, and undermines that integrity, diverting valuable resources into the narrow coffers of a greedy few. It also breaks the chain of responsiveness to market, evolutionary, environmental, or compassionate signals and replaces them with a rigid reordering that has only the resource diversion as its sole purpose.
via Corruption and Sustainability: Like Oil & Water Do Not Mix.
